enemy combatant

A term, popularized during the post-9/11 War on Terror, applied to a captured fighter who was allowed fewer rights than those laid out in the Geneva Convention. Many of the enemy combatants captured in Afghanistan were taken to be held at special military sites. When I was in the military, and liable to be captured myself, I struggled to reconcile the methods employed against enemy combatants after 9/11. Enemy combatants were subject to worse treatment than the typical fighter captured during combat.